Our 2013 - 2014 Concert Schedule
Programs are subject to change
Printable Schedule: SJCMS 2013 - 2014 Brochure (PDF)
Our 6 Subscription Concerts
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8:00 PM - Friday Oct. 25, 2013 |
America's venerable and most influential string quartet |
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8:00 PM - Saturday Nov. 16, 2013 |
MORGENSTERN PIANO TRIO from Germany 2010 winners of Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award |
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7:00 PM - Sunday Jan. 12, 2014 |
‘Curious and Modern Inventions’ - the ‘new music’ of Venice in 1629 |
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7:00 PM - Sunday Feb. 16, 2014 |
From England, GOULD PIANO TRIO & Robert Plane, clarinet Brahms and Bax Clarinet Trios... and more |
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Cycle Concert 3 8:00 PM - Saturday Apr. 5, 2014 Cycle Concert 4 7:00 PM - Sunday Apr. 6, 2014 |
BEETHOVEN STRING QUARTET CYCLE YEAR 2 Co-sponsered by the American Beethoven Society and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University |
Concerts are held at the historic Le Petit Trianon Theatre, 72 N. Fifth Street in downtown San Jose, 1/2 block north of E. Santa Clara Street. Each event begins with a pre-concert talk forty-five minutes before the concert.
Joseph Lin, violin; Ronald Copes, violin; Roger Tapping, viola; Joel Krosnick, cello
October 25, 2013 -
(Friday at 8:00PM)
JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET
PROGRAM
Pre-Concert Talk: Roger Emanuels (at 7:15PM)
MUSIC
Bach's The Art of Fugue explores in-depth the possibilities of counterpoint. Berg's dramatic, introspective, and intensely emotional Lyric Suite, was secretly dedicated to his lover. Schubert's grand and noble last quartet is his most impressive and his most original in musical language.
ARTISTS
Since its inception in 1946, the Juilliard String Quartet has manifest the founders' credo to “play new works as if they were established masterpieces, and established masterpieces as if they were new.” In July 2013, Roger Tapping replaces Samuel Rhodes, the Juilliard's violist since 1969. This is also the first San Jose area concert for Joseph Lin, who was chosen to be first violinist in 2011.
“Repeatedly you were impressed by the way the ensemble feels its way through a phrase, shaping it as one...” – The New York Times.
Stefan Hempel, violin; Catherine Klipfel, piano; Emanuel Wehse, cello
November 16, 2013 -
(Saturday at 8:00PM)
MORGENSTERN PIANO TRIO from Germany
PROGRAM
Pre-Concert Talk: Roger Emanuels (at 7:15PM)
MUSIC
Ravel's only piano trio projects a mood of wistful elegy that is accentuated by the frenzied acrobatics of its fast movements. Haydn's late, “London” Trio, dedicated to London pianist friend Rebecca Schroeter, is subtle and shifting in its moods. Bloch composed his neoclassical style and tightly-knit Nocturnes while Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music 1920-24. Mendelssohn's well-proportioned Trio has a very strong sonata-form Allegro movement, and its Andante is an extended glorious song.
ARTISTS
The prize-winning Morgenstern Trio, formed 2007 at Folkwang Conservatory, Essen, astounds audiences with its magnetic virtuosity, sparkling energy, and organic unity.“
“a smashing debut... unanimity, polished technique and musical imagination... a night to remember.” – Washington Post.
Laura Heimes, Jennifer Ellis Kampani, singers; Rob Diggins, Jolianne von Einem, violins; Warren Stewart, cello; Nigel North, theorbo; Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord & organ
January 12, 2014 -
(Sunday at 7:00PM)
MAGNIFICAT BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
PROGRAM
Magnificat's program “Curious and Modern Inventions” features some of the “new music” - sacred and secular, instrumental and vocal - heard in Venice in 1629.
Pre-Concert Talk: Magnificat's Director, Warren Stewart
MUSIC
In 1629 Heinrich Schütz left war-ravaged Dresden to re-visit Venice, and was amazed by how much styles of composition had changed since he had studied with Gabrieli there some 20 years before. Magnificat offers a taste of the “fresh devices” - new, curious and expressive music - Schütz heard in Venice, which remained an inspiration throughout his life.
ARTISTS
For 20 years Magnificat, under the dynamic leadership of Warren Stewart, has explored the emotionally charged music of 17th Century Europe with dramatic flair, historical sensitivity, infectious joy and musical delight.
“sumptuous and elegantly delivered music.” - S.F. Chronicle

Benjamin Frith, piano; Lucy Gould, violin; Alice Neary, cello

Robert Plane, clarinet
February 16, 2014 -
(Sunday at 7:00PM)
GOULD PIANO TRIO & Robert Plane, clarinet
PROGRAM
Pre-Concert Talk: Janet Sims
MUSIC
Hearing clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld in 1891 inspired Brahms to resume composing, including his famous Clarinet Trio. Bax's youthful, ambitious Trio for viola or clarinet is his earliest extended work. Haydn's London Trios XV:27-29, written during his successful second visit, are experimental and masterful. Mendelssohn's first Piano Trio scored a great and immediate success. Schumann termed it “the master trio of the age”.
ARTISTS
The Gould Piano Trio has a special affinity for playing and recording romantic composers - with many CDs on Naxos.
British clarinetist Robert Plane won Classic CD Magazine's ‘Best Concerto Recording’ Award.

Jens Opperman, violin; Matthias Lingenfelder, violin; Andreas Arndt, cello; Stewart Eaton, viola
Sponsered by the American Beethoven Society and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University
April 5, 2014 -
(Saturday at 8:00PM)
April 6, 2014 -
(Sunday at 7:00PM)
BEETHOVEN STRING QUARTET CYCLE YEAR 2
by the award-winning
AURYN QUARTET from Germany
CYCLE
In year 2 we present five more of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets. His six ‘first period’ quartets, Op.18, of 1798-1800 already demonstrate his mastery of the Classical style he inherited. The middle period “Heroic” quartets from 1806 and 1809 reveal his revolutionary enlarged conception. In the late quartets of 1824-26 Beethoven, now totally deaf, explored new worlds of sound that both challenged and delighted his critics and audiences.
PROGRAM (Cycle Concert 3 - April 5)
All-BEETHOVEN:
Pre-Concert Talk: Dr. Bill Meredith, Director, Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoben Studies, SJSU.
MUSIC
Quartet Op.18/6 is perhaps the most formally experimental of the early quartets: the second movement is an early example of the Beethoven scherzo; the short third movement bears Beethoven's own programmatic title (“Melancholy”); and the melancholy music twice interrupts the finale.
The first of the late-period quartets, Op.127, blends the famous “Heroic” style of the second period with a new, timeless introspection.
PROGRAM (Cycle Concert 4 - April 6)
All-BEETHOVEN:
Pre-Concert Talk: Dr. Bill Meredith, Director, Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoben Studies, SJSU.
MUSIC
The “Harp” Quartet earned its nickname for the pizzicato passage of the first movement, but it is an experimental and deeply moving work.
Quartet Op.18/2 recalls the cheerful and happy energy of the Rococo style in all four movements.
The seven-movement C-Sharp Minor, Op.131, is Beethoven’s most experimental quartet. At its heart is the expansive middle movement in A Major - a beautiful set of contemplative variations.
ARTISTS
The Auryn has performed this cycle throughout Europe and the U.S. Their Beethoven recordings won the Classical Internet Award, and Gramaphone said: “For me, this is now the set to beat.”
Their Haydn CDs won a German Music Critics’ Prize and an Echo Klassik Prize.
“European tradition that blends elegance of sound with seamless phrasing and clarity
of detail.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer